How to Dry Orange Slices

Pick oranges with smooth, unblemished skin. Set one on the cutting board and cut it crosswise into rounds about a quarter inch thick. Thickness matters more than anything else here. Thin, even rounds dry at the same rate and stay flat. A thick one in the middle of the batch will still be sticky when the rest are done.

A mandoline or food slicer keeps them uniform if you have one. Four oranges make a garland around six feet long. Cut a handful of extra rounds for single ornaments while the board is out.

Line two sheet pans with parchment paper. Pick up each slice and press it between paper towels to soak up the juice on the surface. That surface moisture is what makes the slices sit in a puddle for the first hour, so the more you blot now, the faster they dry.

Lay the rounds out in a single layer with a little space around each one. No overlapping. Two pans hold the slices from four oranges with room to spare.

Set the oven to 250F and slide both pans in. Low and slow is the whole method. At this temperature the slices lose their moisture without cooking, so the color stays bright and the segments keep their shape. Plan on three to four hours.

Check them every hour or so. You are looking for the surface to go from wet and glossy to matte, and for the rind to shrink a little. If the house starts to smell like oranges, that is a good sign, not a warning.

After the first hour, pull the pans out and turn each slice over. The edges start to curl as the rind dries faster than the flesh, and flipping flattens them back out. It also lets the underside dry instead of sitting on damp parchment.

Slide the pans back in and keep going. Flip again at the two hour mark if some slices are curling more than others, and swap the pans between racks so the top pan and bottom pan dry at the same speed.

At three and a half hours Jan Howell's slices were dry to the touch but not bone dry, and that is the moment to pull them. Leave them in until they are crisp all the way through and they go brown. Set them on a wire cooling rack and leave them out overnight. The air finishes the job with zero risk of burning.

A finished slice feels leathery, bends a little without cracking, and has no tacky spots when you press the center. Hold one up to a window. Light should come through the segments.

Cut about eight feet of thin jute and thread it onto a yarn needle. A nail or skewer also works for the holes. Where you put them decides how the garland hangs. Two holes near the top, at the eleven o'clock and one o'clock positions, keep every slice upright. One hole dead center makes them lie flat and twist.

Hold the first slice with the back facing you. Push the needle in at one o'clock from the back and out the front, leaving a twelve inch tail. Bring it back in at eleven o'clock and pull through.

Take the next slice and repeat the same move, in from behind at one o'clock and out at eleven. Slide it down the jute until it sits near the first one. Keep going, mixing up the big and small rounds so the garland does not look like a ruler. Four oranges' worth of slices gets you around six feet.

Do not pull them tight. Slices packed edge to edge bunch up and overlap when the garland hangs. A finger's width of slack between each one lets them swing and catch the light.

When the garland is as long as you want, you should have a decent tail of twine left at the end. Double it back on itself to form a loop, then tie a knot a couple of inches below the loop so it holds. Do the same with the twelve inch tail at the start. Snip off the extra with scissors.

Those two loops are what you hang it from. A mantel, a doorway, a window frame or the tree. Two small nails or removable hooks hold it fine because the whole thing weighs almost nothing.

The extra slices become tree ornaments with no twine at all. Take an ornament hook, the cheap wire kind sold by the hundred, and push the pointed end through the rind near the top edge of a dried slice. Pinch the hook closed so it cannot slip out.

Hang them where a light or a window is behind them. The dried segments glow like little stained glass panes. Make plenty. They also work tied onto gift wrap or wired into a wreath.